- Different ways of presenting a material can emphasize different meanings of a text
- Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is more powerful when heard or watched. It is more easily recognized when his voice is heard. - By reading his speech, one who is not fully familiar with the speech may only recognize it as Dr. King’s speech when they get to the “I have a dream” part
- When hearing the speech, one can automatically recognize that it is Dr. King’s voice
- Reading texts displays the powerful and evocative words
- Hearing passages allows for the hearing of volume changes, emotional changes, pauses, and pitch tools to better convey the meaning of the speech
- Viewing and hearing a speech allows the viewer to actually see the emotional facial changes of the speaker, hand cues, and also voice changes
- All different ways of learning the same speech are effective but some ways are more effective than others
How We Process Sound
- Any disturbance that vibrates the sound waves is considered a sound
- In our brain, we have recognition networks that have different processes in understanding and receiving sounds
- How we hear sounds:
1. Air pressure pounds on our eardrums when a wave of energy hits our eardrums
2. Energy is then transformed into patterns of nerve impulses (processing modules) 3. Our auditory cortex recognizes this as a sound
- Patterns of sound are transient
o The first syllable of the word is gone before you pronounce the second syllable
o For example: § “object” – the first syllable is “ob” and the second syllable is “ject” § “ob” disappears before you say “ject” § Try this with me
- Digital Recordings
o This is the only way that we can “see” a sound wave
o It is impossible to create a still shot of sound
- Time is inseparable from sound
This is a black hole. Sounds basically enter a black hole because once they have been produced, they are lost in time.
o The brain can only respond to the number of waves per second
o You cannot freeze a sound in time, only record it and play it back
o The time that the sound took place in is already past
- One of human’s most extraordinary traits is recognize meaning of vocalizations from speech
o Speech is a very rich subgroup of sound
o Human vocal cords create complex patterns
Processing Speech: Advantages and Disadvantages (Click Voki for more information)
Advantages: →Expressive powers →Convey emotions through intonation, pace, volume, and sound →Understand tone
Networks Involved with Speech (click Voki for more information)
Recognition Network →Recognize and give meaning to words
→Bottom-Up Processing
Differentiate between phonemes (individual sounds)
Forms words from sounds
→Top-Down Processing
Use prior knowledge and context to give words meanings
Strategic Network →Motor plans and actions associated with listening
Organize sounds
Relate information to previous knowledge
Remember what is being said
Concentrate on speaker
Affective Networks →Process emotions conveyed by facial expressions and intonation
How We Process Light and Images
The Qualities of Text
The Qualities of Images
Images are a form of media that can be used in the classroom. Images can be displayed in textbooks, on PowerPoint slides, or on posters around the classroom. Some would suggest that using an image to represent information would be more beneficial to the student, but is that statement true?
Of course images can assist visual learners in understanding and processing information better. Images also have other advantages. When comparing an image to text, text gives a more linear, less direct way of displaying information. An image gives all of the information to the learner at once. It is also suggested that images can better display emotion than text can. For example, text can tell you directly that a girl is upset whereas an image can show a picture of a child with a red face screaming at the top of her lungs with tears streaming down her face.
Though one would think that images can only improve the understanding of a topic, images can have their disadvantages too. For example, sometimes images can be misinterpreted. In the black and white image above, what do you see? Some students may see a young woman while others may see an old woman. Also, some images can be complex and need a trained artist's eye to interpret what is being portrayed in the image. Some images, even if they are not complicated, need further explanation via text or verbal explanation. For example, right now I am presenting these images to you verbally and explaining what they have to do with the chapter. This text is also needed to explain the images when I am not available to verbally present the images.
Why We Need Flexible Instructional Media
Unfortunately, speech, text, and images each have strengths and weaknesses. Not all learners have the same strengths in each of these areas. In every situation these methods may not work optimally for every student. This means that more media options should be available. Unfortunately, many classrooms continue to be dominated by textbooks. There are alternatives for teachers. Teachers do not always need more media in the classroom. Teachers already have plenty of media. What teachers need is better media.
With technology, information can be presented in almost any medium. Images can be made darker, lighter, sharper, bigger and smaller and transferable
Digital media is versatile. It has the ability to present media in many formats text, still image, sound, moving image, a combination of text on video, sound in text, video in text, and more
Digital media is transformable. It has the ability to present media in multiple formats
Digital media can be marked. Hypertext markup language allows change and mark-ups, so that a teacher can display information how they see fit
Digital media can be networked. It makes it possible to link one piece of digitally stored content to another. This allows access to other digital learning support systems such as dictionaries and thesauruses. It also offers links to prompts that can help support reading comprehension and other supplementary prompts that can assist in building background knowledge, including linking to electronic notepads or visual organizers
Traditional Instructional Media
- Different ways of presenting a material can emphasize different meanings of a text
- Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is more powerful when heard or watched. It is more easily recognized when his voice is heard.
- By reading his speech, one who is not fully familiar with the speech may only recognize it as Dr. King’s speech when they get to the “I have a dream” part
- When hearing the speech, one can automatically recognize that it is Dr. King’s voice
- Reading texts displays the powerful and evocative words
- Hearing passages allows for the hearing of volume changes, emotional changes, pauses, and pitch tools to better convey the meaning of the speech
- Viewing and hearing a speech allows the viewer to actually see the emotional facial changes of the speaker, hand cues, and also voice changes
- All different ways of learning the same speech are effective but some ways are more effective than others
How We Process Sound
- Any disturbance that vibrates the sound waves is considered a sound
- In our brain, we have recognition networks that have different processes in understanding and receiving sounds
- How we hear sounds:
1. Air pressure pounds on our eardrums when a wave of energy hits our eardrums
2. Energy is then transformed into patterns of nerve impulses (processing modules)
3. Our auditory cortex recognizes this as a sound
§ “object” – the first syllable is “ob” and the second syllable is “ject”
§ “ob” disappears before you say “ject”
§ Try this with me
- Digital Recordings
- Time is inseparable from sound
- One of human’s most extraordinary traits is recognize meaning of vocalizations from speech
Processing Speech: Advantages and Disadvantages (Click Voki for more information)
Advantages:
→ Expressive powers
→ Convey emotions through intonation, pace, volume, and sound
→ Understand tone
Disadvantages:
→ Transience
→ Easily forgotten (overload memory bank)
Networks Involved with Speech (click Voki for more information)
Recognition Network
→ Recognize and give meaning to words
→ Bottom-Up Processing
- Differentiate between phonemes (individual sounds)
- Forms words from sounds
→ Top-Down ProcessingStrategic Network
→ Motor plans and actions associated with listening
Affective Networks
→ Process emotions conveyed by facial expressions and intonation
How We Process Light and Images
The Qualities of Text
The Qualities of Images
Images are a form of media that can be used in the classroom. Images can be displayed in textbooks, on PowerPoint slides, or on posters around the classroom. Some would suggest that using an image to represent information would be more beneficial to the student, but is that statement true?
Of course images can assist visual learners in understanding and processing information better. Images also have other advantages. When comparing an image to text, text gives a more linear, less direct way of displaying information. An image gives all of the information to the learner at once. It is also suggested that images can better display emotion than text can. For example, text can tell you directly that a girl is upset whereas an image can show a picture of a child with a red face screaming at the top of her lungs with tears streaming down her face.
Though one would think that images can only improve the understanding of a topic, images can have their disadvantages too. For example, sometimes images can be misinterpreted. In the black and white image above, what do you see? Some students may see a young woman while others may see an old woman. Also, some images can be complex and need a trained artist's eye to interpret what is being portrayed in the image. Some images, even if they are not complicated, need further explanation via text or verbal explanation. For example, right now I am presenting these images to you verbally and explaining what they have to do with the chapter. This text is also needed to explain the images when I am not available to verbally present the images.
Why We Need Flexible Instructional Media
Unfortunately, speech, text, and images each have strengths and weaknesses. Not all learners have the same strengths in each of these areas. In every situation these methods may not work optimally for every student. This means that more media options should be available. Unfortunately, many classrooms continue to be dominated by textbooks. There are alternatives for teachers. Teachers do not always need more media in the classroom. Teachers already have plenty of media. What teachers need is better media.